Hampton welcomes new girls soccer coach

By: John Grupp
Saturday, April 12, 2025 | 11:01 AM

New Hampton girls soccer coach Chris Garraffa has big plans for a program he believes has underachieved a bit lately.

The former boys soccer coach at Lampeter-Strasburg in Lancaster said he sees a Talbots roster with a “ton of quality” that has yet to reach its potential.

“I found games on YouTube of them playing Mars and Gateway. I compared the roster with returning players, and there is a ton of quality,” he said. “I felt like the way they were playing was holding them back a little bit. They weren’t as creative or free to play their game and to play a more modern style. In my head, I could envision being able to take them to the next level.”

Garraffa, 32, was hired in March to replace Bill Paholich, who informed Hampton athletic director Mike Gavlik after last fall’s 12-5-1 season that he was stepping down. Paholich went 123-80-9 in 12 seasons and his teams reached the WPIAL playoffs each of the past nine years. Throw in his time as an assistant coach, and Paholich has spent the past quarter-century helping to make the Talbots a consistent winner and WPIAL playoff qualifier.

“Bill was there for many years, and I think he had success while he was here,” said Gavlik, in his second year at the school. “He contributed a lot to the girls soccer program.”

But the Talbots, who reached the PIAA Class 3A playoffs in 2018 and won the section title in 2020, haven’t won a postseason game since 2021. In the past three seasons, they are 41-10 in the regular season and 0-3 in the playoffs. Garraffa hopes to change that.

“I think their quality is much better than being a playoff qualifier compared to being a real contender in the WPIAL,” he said.

Garraffa coached the boys at District 3 Lampeter-Strasburg for five seasons, from 2020-24. He resigned after last year’s 16-4-3 season — one of the best in program history — and relocated to Pittsburgh to be with his girlfriend.

The Indiana (Pa.) product said he interviewed “with quite a few boys programs” in the WPIAL before ultimately pursuing the Hampton girls job. He has never coached girls before, but his sister, Taylor, is the girls coach at Lampeter-Strasburg, his alma mater.

“I knew her team very, very well, and I was well versed in being around them and training them,” he said. “But it’s certainly a different communication style.”

Garraffa plans to install a system that stresses creativity and will look different than how the Talbots played in games he has watched.

“From what I could see on film last year, it looked like they were build-from-the-back, possession-based and then play it forward and hope one of their star players could receive the ball and make something happen,” he said. “It looked like a bunch of really top-quality players playing individually on the field. I want a rigid system that, from the back-third to the middle-third, we are sorted, organized and compact. But when we get to the final third, let’s get creative. … Once we’re in the box or in the area, let’s take a risk and have a go.”

Garraffa, who is putting together his staff, held a player-parent meeting shortly after being hired and met with the seniors and some returning players April 4. He said training will start in mid-to-late April.

Gavlik is encouraged by Garraffa’s vision of the program.

“He has a different perspective on the game of soccer,” Gavlik said. “I think he brings some fresh ideas that hopefully will be incorporated here at Hampton.”

Tags: Hampton